For a moment, everyone around fell silent. Even from the tents some distance away, nobles could be seen holding their breath and pricking up their ears.

Giving someone your own hat is an even more intimate and direct expression of affection than offering your coat.

To think that the haughty knight Leon Aranias would openly make such an affectionate gesture towards a woman. Could the rumors circulating about his relationship with Kasha Lyuschino be true after all? People’s faces lit up with curiosity that seemed about to burst.

“Sir Leon.”

As if she could no longer contain herself, Lady Haley, who had been standing quietly, stepped forward. Leon glanced at her and acknowledged her greeting impassively.

“Lady Haley of the Count’s family.”

“It’s been a long time, Sir.”

“Has it?”

“Um, Sir Leon. The tent of the Tyrot Duchy is over there. The sangria they’ve prepared is quite refreshing. Shall we go together? We can exchange greetings and wet our throats. Duke Tyrot is waiting for you as well.”

Hinting that Odette was waiting, Haley tried to persuade him charmingly.

She was refusing to accept this situation. The firm rejection was evident in her expression, believing it impossible that Leon, the most eligible bachelor in society, would reject Odette and show interest in such an insignificant woman.

Leon looked down at her coldly with violet eyes devoid of any warmth.

“Not interested.”

“Pardon?”

“It would be impolite to wander off alone, leaving one’s partner behind.”

“Partner…?”

Haley’s lips trembled as if such a thing couldn’t be possible.

Towards her, Leon quietly but firmly affirmed:

“Lady Kasha Lyuschino is my partner today. I believe the Tyrot Duchy is already aware of this fact.”

“No, that’s… but, why on earth.”

Her flustered stammering with a pale face was almost pitiful. Kasha turned her head with a coolly composed expression.

‘I’m tired of this comedy now.’

She didn’t want to waste any more time. Kasha turned around and gently took Leon’s arm.

For a moment, she felt his thick arm muscles tense, but she looked up at him expressionlessly and urged:

“Let’s go now. Leon.”

Dropping even the title ‘Sir’ and calling his name again, his eyes seemed to waver a little.

“……”

His perpetually cold expression had cracked slightly. Without replying, he began to move in the direction Kasha indicated with her eyes.

The two of them, dressed in similarly ivory-colored outfits, were unmistakably a couple. The nobles who saw their retreating figures whispered while covering their mouths.

Though her body stung from the hostility emanating from the triplet ladies, Kasha moved on as if nothing was wrong. All while holding onto his arm, tense to the point of bursting.

It was then.

Puu—

The sound of a hunting horn rang out high, signaling the start of the hunting competition.

The slender back of a woman riding her horse without hesitation into the lush summer forest.

Watching Kasha’s round crown with her hair tied up swaying, Leon fell into a mood that was difficult to define precisely.

‘Does she even know what kind of beasts live in this forest?’

To his experienced eyes, even her horsemanship seemed terribly unstable. She didn’t seem to fear horses, but it was clear she hadn’t ridden often.

However, despite sitting awkwardly in the saddle, the woman’s shoulders were straight, and her gaze fixed ahead showed no hesitation.

As if she were a battle-hardened veteran who had buried fears in the sands of time.

In fact, when Kasha had declared that she would participate in the hunting competition herself, Leon had thought she was speaking out of ignorance.

The hunting competition hosted by the Imperial family every summer was not simply an event to compete in hunting skills. Rather, it was closer to a matchmaking custom among nobles arranged by the Imperial family, following the debutante.

In the hunting competition, successful male hunters offer their catch to the woman they are courting. It’s a public courtship scene and an opportunity to gauge at a glance who will be the queen of this season’s social circle.

In short, an event perfectly suited to the tastes of socialites.

It was extremely rare for women to participate in this hunting competition. This year too, apart from one female knight participating on behalf of her lord, Kasha was the only one who had put her name on the list.

‘Even though they’ve released mostly safe animals for the competition, sometimes even fierce bears appear in this forest. Why take such a risk unnecessarily? It would be simple if I hunted and offered the game to you.’

To Leon’s words, Kasha had looked up at him with clear eyes and said:

‘This hunting competition is an opportunity.’

‘An opportunity?’

‘To create a safeguard… so that others can’t carelessly take away what I have.’

It was utterly incomprehensible, but she didn’t explain further, and Leon wasn’t persistent enough to probe deeper.

From the start, she didn’t seem to want his understanding or help. She appeared even less interested in him winning the hunting competition and courting her.

She really seemed to think of Leon just as a shield to block someone else’s approach, just as she had said when starting the contract romance.

Always fiddling with magical tools or staring at blueprints, lost in her own thoughts, at times she seemed to forget Leon’s very existence beside her.

And disconcertingly, Leon found this fact a bit disagreeable.

‘I made quite a big decision to agree to this contract romance, and yet.’

Isn’t this relationship too dry to even be called a romance in the first place?

Unlike at first, he ended up being the only one anxiously curious about Kasha’s inner thoughts.

‘Perhaps, is she deliberately using tactics to make me so concerned….’

But when he actually looked at Kasha’s eyes, which were always watching him, they were terribly clear. And resolute. As if there was no need for any suspicion or the slightest hesitation.

It was clearly so.

One moment she treated him like a scarecrow, and the next, in front of those hyena-like women, she made him worry with such a blank face.

Though he couldn’t hear what Lady Haley of the Count’s family was whispering in Kasha’s ear, he could tell from her expression. That she was uttering quite harsh words.

‘Why is she just standing there?’

The woman who had spoken so boldly to Leon now had a face like a child left alone in the world. It was terribly unpleasant and angering. So without realizing it, his body stepped forward.

‘Kasha.’

That face turning when Leon called her name. Seeing her dull gaze suddenly brighten, he was caught in an indescribable feeling.

The conflict with his father, the sense of responsibility for the crumbling Grand Duke’s family, all completely vanished from his mind in that moment. Even Anthony’s ominous warning that had been haunting his thoughts was erased.

In that moment, all the surrounding noise faded, and only Kasha’s face was clearly visible.

Before being consumed by that intense and unfamiliar feeling, he abruptly took off his hat and put it on her.

It was a gesture even he found hard to define. He just wanted to show everyone at that moment. The fact that he would protect her.

Seeing the woman’s face looking even smaller and more fragile under his hat, he felt more pity and his anger towards the hyena-like women around her intensified.

It was even more so because he could clearly see Odette fanning herself under the lavish tent in the distance, watching their misdeeds, and Simon observing the situation with heightened senses while hiding his body.

He barely suppressed the stupid urge to drag Simon out and beat him thoroughly. If Kasha hadn’t led him away from that spot, he didn’t know what he might have done.

But what irritated him most was Leon himself. He found himself monstrous for being unable to take his eyes off the scarlet lips imprinted on Kasha’s small face even in all those moments.

‘To feel desire even in this situation.’

He had even finished an intense dawn training session, but could lust be rearing its head again?

While gripped by terrible self-loathing, he feared his own dangerously turbulent emotions.

‘Is this… simple desire, or.’

‘Brother. You’ll surely regret it, you shouldn’t trust that woman.’

He recalled Anthony saying that with an ominous look.

‘Why did Anthony say such things about Kasha? Could he possibly know something I don’t?’

Anthony is an intelligent and thoughtful brother, though he can be irritable.

‘He’s not the type to slander someone with baseless talk.’

His mind became complicated again.

Leon glared at Kasha’s back as she calmly strode through the forest ahead.

The arm she had grabbed earlier still felt hot as if burned, making his breath hot.

Yet the very person who made him feel this way remained calm throughout.

During the entire opening ceremony of the hunting competition, even while standing right next to Leon, she didn’t turn her gaze towards him once.

Her eyes were fixed only on the Emperor giving the opening speech and the high nobles beside him.

The aged Emperor mumbled just a few words for the opening speech before coming down from the podium. He was supported by Princess Melissa and Princess Jasmine.

Was it an illusion that Kasha’s gaze particularly sparkled coldly towards Princess Jasmine, who was attending in place of the Crown Prince who was away on a diplomatic visit?

‘It’s impossible to guess what’s going on inside that small head.’

Even right before the start, it was like that.

Kasha turned her indifferent gaze to Leon and asked just two things.

‘In this forest, which direction is the largest… and most ferocious bear?’

‘…A bear?’

‘Yes. The gray bear that’s been rumored… to have even eaten people recently. The one called the devil of Chrysos Forest. Which part of the forest does that bear appear in?’

Wondering why on earth she was asking such a thing, he replied with a dubious tone.

‘It’s near the western ravine, but.’

A man-eating bear that numerous hunters have been trying to catch for years. In fact, it was the prey Leon had in mind for today.

‘…Quite far. I’ll have to hurry. I see.’

But upon hearing his words, Kasha set off towards the western ravine with a very solemn expression.

‘That woman is really…!’

That was the reason he had no choice but to hurriedly enter the forest, chasing after her vanished figure.